


Blue Matters

by LordStarling



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-25
Updated: 2012-11-25
Packaged: 2017-11-19 12:15:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/573162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordStarling/pseuds/LordStarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rabbit Walter thought his Pappy was dead. Apparently he was only a bit correct.</p><p>For those people who wanted some more of the story. I'm putting this here because I'm over my post limit, but it will be blogged later on. The original post inspired by Rorschachink's gif can be found <a href="http://rorschachink.tumblr.com/post/36393478648/morrissarty-goat-herder-of-meh">here</a>. </p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Matters

It was late in Walter Manor, far past the time Rabbit would usually have retired into stasis so as not to wake up any resident humans. But there was a patch on the joint of his left shoulder that seemed to have rusted just enough to become encumbering and irritating, and he didn’t want to deal with it creaking on and off through the rest of the night. Although soon the birds would start calling outside, he decided to take a quick walk for repairs.   
The house was far more quiet at night, without the passing characters that usually would inhabit it when the sun is up. In fact, even those who might be lingering for a midnight snack seemed to have forsaken the idea for that of sleep, and the eerie stillness of the walls made it even harder to be silent. It was just that hour. Rabbit in turn became more quiet himself, made cautious by the empty noise. A quiet whirring was all that followed him as he made his way to the kitchen.  
Ah, there. On the shelf stood a small tin of oil, one which would easily silence the squeaking joint.  
As Rabbit reached for the can he saw it, the familiar outline of a long-ago figure standing silently like a sleepwalker before dawn. Rabbit could not look away. He could not tell how or why this apparition could be present, swirling with small traces of blue matter as he withdrew his hand and turned to face it. But it was him, unmoving, here in the night when even the nocturnal members of the house had chosen to sleep.  
“Rabbit. I needed to talk to you.”  
In shock, Rabbit could not reply. His mouth opened and closed several times as he stared, before finally extracting a creaking answer.  
“Pappy.”

They both were silent for a long time, Rabbit attempting to understand how the father he had not seen for decades could be standing before him, and Peter Walter the first standing silent, a solemn dead man and possibly a robotic hallucination. Inside the robot's mind a storm was brewing, but for all the chaos inside his circuitry his movements were as they always were as he withdrew, a smooth backing away marred only by the creak of his shoulder and the small glitches causing his head to twitch to the side. If it were possible for a robot to go into shock, this would be an apt representation. He could barely bring himself to move away.  
Colonel Walter still didn't move. He just stood, one hand slightly extended, as if to say 'Yes, I'm here, I'm real, this is real.' The house was still eerily quiet.

"Where- where is everybody?" Asked Rabbit, avoiding the obvious question.

"Sleeping." It was the same voice Rabbit had heard many times before, albeit out of place in the house so many years after his Pappy's death.

"Are you m-making them sleep?"

"Yes." The human moved forwards, but the robot continued to back away, although each stepped with their hands outstretched towards the other. Rabbit's back  pressed against the wall as he ran out of room. Pappy stepped forward once more, just close enough that their fingertips hovered just millimetres apart. The robot couldn't tear his eyes from the pair of mirrored hands as he moved forward just enough to close the gap. Surprised at the solid contact he jerked back, a spark of blue following his hand as it pulled away.

"You're really here"

"I am."

"How?"

"It's very complicated."

"Pappy, you died-d-d-d-d"

"And you didn't. Look at you, you've hardly worn down at all! A few different bits and pieces, upgraded parts, but you look like new, except for that arm. Shall we fix it?" He took from the shelf the untouched oil can, reaching again for Rabbit's wrist. At first it was unmovable, the limb of a robotic statue, but as the ghost tugged gently at his arm gears began to whir, and he moved forward, allowing access to the creaking metal in his shoulder. Rabbit watched the shimmering blue underneath the eyes of his creator as he fixed the small faults and applied oil to the gaps. The face in focus was still the face of his father as he had been so many years ago, poring over design work and intent in repairs, despite the surreal qualities and odd blue lighting. "Now I know this is very confusing-"

"Yes."

"Yes, but I need you to help me with something."

"What about the others?"

"We can't wake them up. And I've had to temporarily shut down Hatchworth because of the rift inside him. It was causing too much interference. If there's too much movement this might not work."

"I don't understand."

"You're the oldest, Rabbit. You were here before the others. Do you remember the reactor?"

"Reactor. Reaction. Reality. No."

The colonel looked thoughtful before speaking again. "Access restricted memory files. Voice conformation: Peter Walter. Search key: Reactor."

And suddenly Rabbit did remember. Right back to when he was nothing more than a head on a table, the reactor had had it's mentions. Essentially a gigantic compressed blue matter core, the Reactor's design had been Walter's dream of a clean energy source to power literally the entire world from one station. That dream, however had been crushed for reasons not explained to the robot at the time. It wasn't the only thing that came back. Apparently Pappy had needed to hide some things in Rabbit's mind. "I... you-"

"Rabbit, please. I promise I'll explain, but just not right now. Do you remember where it is?"

"B-basement?"

"Yes, very good. Now, I'm going to need you to help me turn it off for a while. If you walk with me I'll explain how, but we may need to hurry." He stood from where they had crouched on the floor pushing off from Rabbit's arm as he did so.

"No."

"No? So you can deny directions from your own creator then, that's new. Why not"

"Because you're dead. A-and I don't know why you're here, or how you're here, and you made everybody go to sleep and you still haven't explained anything!" His voice started to shake and rattle as he got steadily more upset.

"Rabbi-"

"Are you really alive? Are you a ghost? Were you alive the whole time and just playing pretend with us? You left us years ago P-p-p-pappy, and I don't even know if you're real."

"Rabbit please, just think! You know what's happening here, you know what it means!"

"No."

"It's the-"

"No!"

"Rabbit!"

"It's n-not that! You promised! You promised everybody it was safe, even Becile knew it! You can't say this now, because that means that I'll have to, that I'll have to, that I'll have to, have to, have to-"

"Boy, listen. It's not as bad as you think. But I need you to help me fix this. We don't have as much time as I'd like, and you know what will happen if we don't. But I will sit down with you and your brothers afterwards and talk about it, and on that you have my promise. Now, will you help me?" He extended one bluish hand to the crouching metal figure, who remained reluctantly with his head in his hands for a few moments before reluctantly taking the outstretched palm and rising to his feet with a defeated hiss of steam.

"Okay."

"Very good. Fancy having to explain myself to a robot, you boys have developed quite the personality over the years." Rabbit didn't reply, forcing himself to look down at the floor instead of towards the face of his creator. "Come on then". Said Peter Walter, as he tugged a little at Rabbit's sleeve. "Let's go sort this nonsense out."


End file.
